I would not once suggest that he might have experienced another hidden cost first hand by reason of a relation who might have returned home with headaches about the inscrutable, intractable, interminable and incessant default to industrial dispute between academia and the government of the day.

Yet, I have some really enlightening
conversations with Chuba, his mother and his brother on Twitter, whilst his
blogs when published are quite insightful and knowledgeable in the use of facts
and data and in offering useful opinion and thinking points.

Students are most affected by the strikes,
whether they are in school, graduated or seeking admission. Chuba identifies
those areas and laments about the fact that students do not seem to realise how
affected they are to get agitated enough to demand engagement, change, accountability
and responsibility.

That is in my view, a great shame, indeed.

The Hidden Costs of University Strikes

Got back to Nigeria over a year ago and I’ve had the unfortunate opportunity of experiencing a fuel strike and a Universities
Union strike. As should be clear to anyone, strikes negatively affect the
economy directly and indirectly. The direct costs of strikes are mostly
financial. [BBC News]
[Vanguard
Nigeria]

According to Reuters, the 2012 fuel strike cost Nigeria $1.2 billion
after only 8 days of striking. Also, the Punch newspaper estimates that the total
sum in salary for the lecturers during period of the ASUU strike may run into
billions of naira. So yes, we’ve lost billions thanks to these strikes, but
there’s more to them than financial loss.

The indirect costs are less obvious and perhaps more potent to the
economy in the long run. Worse still, these indirect costs tend to be far
greater in the skilled sectors-especially the academic sector-than in the
non-skill sectors. Why? Cause it has long lasting effects that cannot be solved
solely through money. Atrophy of knowledge. Knowledge – like a muscle –
declines the less one makes use of it.

Academic schedules are created with strategic amounts of time to ensure that students are able to learn as much as possible. Sadly, the unpredictable nature of strikes immediately interrupts such learning processes. “The academic calendar of the students has already been disrupted. This would mean the adjustment of their timetable and a delay in their year of graduation. The man hours lost over this period would have to be paid for,” notes Professor Yomi Akinyeye, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, the University of Lagos.

Worse still, it creates a wedge in knowledge assimilation. During the
strike process, students forget a major part of what had been previously
taught. Add this to the fact that with the Nigerian rote method of learning,
assimilation is hardly possible. So, with an absence in tutorship, the rate of
atrophy is much faster. Consequently, when the strike is over, students are
guaranteed to return back to school dumber than they left. How then are they
all meant to graduate with Upper Second Class degrees?

Given enough strikes, students can end up spending 2-3 more years
attempting to obtain a measly degree. Worst still, by the time these student
graduates, they'll be inducted into the one year of NYSC
Service. By the end of their NYSC year, few will be retained at their Primary
Place of Assignment i.e. where they 'worked'.

Those searching for a job afterwards will be faced with job applications
with a requirements like "Applicant must not be older than 24".
Consider also that this requirement gets worse as time passes. If one cannot
get an entry level job this year due to one's age and lack of work experience,
then his/her situation is bound to worsen the next year. This is the reality of
thousands of graduates. A system that holds the students back and proceeds to
alienate them once they attempt to be economically productive.

Interestingly enough, the consequence of this regressive game of strikes
reaches further back to those outside of the University gates: applicants
attempting to get into these universities. The delay in the academic calendar
of Universities causes a backlog of applicants who end up with more competition
over time.

Do the math: the more the applicants to a constant and finite number of
universities will only result in the rejection of capable students.

Students will be rejected, not because of their academic inability, but
because there’s simply lack of university spaces to accommodate the backlog of
applicants. Most of these Secondary School students will have to wait a few
years before they can be admitted into these Universities with subpar
education.

Within their universities, they will face the same issue of strikes that
kept them out of these same universities for so long. Then, they will
eventually graduate and be faced with the same age barrier as the rest of those
before them.

Sadly, the interesting part of the strike system is that it never
affects the two major jousting parties; at least not significantly. The
Government suffers no adverse effect from it; after all, the professors are not
drilling oil, so their strike is inconsequential to them.

The professors on the other hand do not significantly feel the weight of
such strikes as most of them probably have speaking engagements and other
projects on the side. Best part of it, they can’t get fired; ask Nyesom Wike, the Education Minister, he tried. [ThisDay
Online] [Premium
Times]

Once we begin to understand where the incentives lie, we begin to
understand who really endures the most of these strikes: the students. Many of
whom might be unaware of the true cost of the strike and might just be happy to
get back to school.

The game of strike in the education sector might have ended now, but
assuredly, another strike will commence once the $1.3bn Government payout runs
out. There’s something to continuity that takes more than $1.3bn. The money is
nothing but a Band-Aid for a problem that cuts much deeper. It would take the
overhaul of a system that encourages incompetence and lack of accountability.

Like Mr. Akin's persistent 10 years of blogging - which has made him
proficient - adopting an efficient system improves efficiency &
specialisation.

Besides, students must understand the need to become more vocal about
how they choose to influence their academic lives, no one bears the cost more
than them.

Students were disappointedly quiet during this ASUU strike, and unless they become vocal about the accountability of funds supposedly doled out to ‘improve their education’, they’ll be nothing but pawns on the chessboard of power. Those with the most to lose need to be the most vocal.